Editing Revenant (section)

===5th Edition===
5th edition likewise made them playable in the April 2016 Unearthed Arcana article, which had a theme of "Gothic Heroes", adding the Revenant and the [[Fighter|Monster Hunter]] and [[Rogue|Inquisitive]] archetypes to the game. The 5e revenant is handled using the sub-race mechanics, where you take a base race and apply the Revenant's extra options to the base race. Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of how to apply it to [[Human]]s, [[Tiefling]]s and [[Dragonborn]], who don't use that system, but the document explains that quite handily, although it does leave it ambiguous if humans and dragonborn are supposed to get +3 stat points or not:

Human revenants increase two ability scores of the player's choice by +1 and get the Revenant traits. Variant humans replace their Skills and Feat traits with the Revenant traits.

Dragonborn revenants change their ability score modifiers to +1 Strength and +1 Charisma, inflict and resist Necrotic damage via their Draconic Ancestry trait (although they presumably keep the breath weapon type, so it's still a cone vs. line choice), and gain the Revenant traits.

Tiefling revenants get +2 Charisma and the Revenant traits.

Revenants in 5e gain +1 Constitution and the Relentless Nature trait. This represents their undying, goal-driven nature, so the player and the DM have to agree on a completeable goal that the PC is pursuing; this is what drew them back from the grave, and is important. Relentless Nature means that, when reduced below half of their maximum hit points, a revenant will regain 1 hit point each turn until they are at half maximum HP again. It also means that revenants cannot be permanently killed; if slain, a revenant will self-resurrect 24 hours later and no force can stop this. Even total destruction of the body won't do anything, the revenant will simply rematerialize somewhere within 1 mile of the place where it was destroyed. A revenant can sense the direction of their "goal target" and the distance to reach them so long as you are both on the same plane of existence. If you came back to murder the guy who killed you, then you know where he is. If you came back to protect your family, you know where they are.

Sound overpowered? Maybe. But Relentless Nature carries a sting in its tail: if you complete your goal, then you automatically and irrevocably ''drop dead on the spot''. With no further ties to the mortal world, you cannot be raised by any magic. So, your character ''will'' complete their goal, but that is '''it'''.

Coming back as a revenant is presented as a viable choice for players who have had a character die; you just adjust your stats as appropriate for switching out the subrace/core race traits, and then you crawl out of your grave, ready to resume your adventure.

{{D&D5e-Races}}

====Hollow Ones====
'''Hollowed Ones''' are an official revenant PC race added to D&D 5e through the [[Exandria]] setting, appearing in the ''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount''. They hail from the region known as Blightshore, where twisted necromantic magic infused into the terrain sometimes causes the dead to spontaneously return as semi-living creatures with an aura of necromantic magic and inhuman vitality. Mechanically, they're the weirdest race in any official 5e publication so far; you start with a "normal" 5e race, and then you apply the Hollow One "Supernatural Gift" (a kind of optional mystic power up from the [[Dungeon Master's Guide]]), which gives your character the following traits:
::Ageless: You don't age, period. You'll never die of old age, and effects that age people don't work on you.
::Cling to Life: When making death saving throws, you regain 1 hit point on a roll of a 16+.
::Revenance: You register as undead for spells and effects that detect the undead creature type.
::Unsettling Presence: Once per day, you can target a visible creature that is not a construct, undead, or immune to fear within 15 feet of you. The targeted creature suffers Disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes within the next minute.

====Cursed Ones====
Hailing from the 3rd party setting [[Seas of Vodari]] for 5e, Cursed Ones are a weird thematic mashup of the [[World Axis]] revenant and a playable ghost. As their name suggests, they are once-living mortals transformed into an undead state, somewhere between a revenant and a ghost, by either black magic curses or by the need to complete something that their sudden death interrupted. Cursed Ones have the following racial traits:
::Ability Score Increase: +1 to 2 ability scores of your choice; these should thematically be ones you gained bonuses to in your previous life.
::Size: As per original race
::Speed: As per original race
::Ghostlike Nature: You no longer need to eat or drink, nor do you age. In addition, you have resistance to necrotic damage.
::Ghostly Form: You can strengthen your connection to the Ethereal Plane and take an incorporeal form. When you take bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage from a nonmagical weapon, you can use your reaction to take on a ghostly form and halve the attack’s damage against you. In addition, you can move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.
::Unfinished Business: Your curse holds you to the mortal plane. If you fail a death saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Lingering Memories: You no longer need to sleep. Instead, you slip into a dreamlike state, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While in this dreamlike state, you are aware of your surroundings and experience the memories of the person you were. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
::Enduring Traits: Cursed souls lose many of the traits of the person they were before they became cursed. You retain the traits for your former race as outlined below:
* [[Dragonborn]]: Draconic Ancestry, Breath Weapon
* [[Dwarf]]: Darkvision
** Hill/Mountain: Tool Proficiency, Stonecunning
** Sea: From the Depths
* [[Elf]]: Darkvision
** Dark/High/Wood: Keen Senses, Fey Ancestry
** Sea: Child of the Sea
* [[Gnome]]: Darkvision
** Forest: Natural Illusionist, Speak With Small Beasts
** Rock: Artificer's Lore, Tinker
* [[Halfling]]: Lucky, Halfling Nimbleness
* [[Half-Elf]]: Darkvision, 1 free skill proficiency
* [[Half-Orc]]: Darkvision, Savage Attacks
* [[Human]]: Increase a 3rd ability score by +1
* [[Siren]]: Amphibious and either Singer (Seasinger subrace) or Dancer (Wavedancer subrace)
* [[Minotaur]]: Horns, Powerful Build, Savant
* [[Tiefling]]: Darkvision, Hellish Resistance
* [[Voda]]: Amphibious, Shapeshift
====The Reborn====
Appearing in the January 2021 Gothic Lineages UA, [[Reborn]] are essentially Revenants, but also includes a broader range of various "died but came back" themes, which also makes them a pretty good option if your character kicks the bucket. As a Reborn, you are the result of some mishap that brought you back to life, at the cost of turning you into something quite different and jumbling up all of your memories. Examples include being stitched together like Frankenstein's Monster, being a necromancer's minion that suddenly regained consciousness, crawling out of your own grave with no memories, or actually being a stuffy doll filled with straw that gained the gift of life. All Reborn have jumbled up memories, and every time you sit in one place to think for a while, you can choose to roll on a table and recall a Lost Memory, giving you faint glimmers of (one of) your past life(s).

'''Traits:'''

'''Ability Score Increase.''' +2 to an ability score of your choice, +1 to a different ability score of your choice.

'''Type:''' Humanoid ''and'' Undead ''or'' Construct. Your choice when you take this lineage. Cure Wounds still works on you, since everything that works on a Humanoid still works on things that are Constructs or Undead.

'''Size:''' Medium or Small (choose when you gain this lineage)

'''Speed:''' 30 ft.

'''Darkvision:''' You get to see in the dark within 60 ft of you.

'''Deathless Nature:''' You get a boatload of different benefits because of the strange circumstances of your un-life.

* You have advantage on saving throws against disease and being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.

* You have advantage on death saving throws.

* You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe.

* You don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep. You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in an inactive, motionless state, during which you retain consciousness.

'''Knowledge of a Past Life:''' Anytime you would roll a skill check, you can add a d6 to the roll, as your previous life gives you a brief insight into what you're about to do. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Note that you don't actually have to have proficiency in the skill you're rolling to make use of this d6.